[Video] Sophia Tesfamariam speaks on call for Probe of Eritrea

The following Sophia Tesfamariam quotes were taken from the video:

First of all, the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea is a three person commission established in 2012 and it was mandated to investigate alleged crimes by Eritrea. It was given about a year to come up with substantive evidence for its allegations, which it never did. It never provided an iota of evidence. And so the commission actually, by resolution on July 1st, was disbanded and based on the recommendations it has made, I guess the resolution, produced by Djibouti and Somalia, calls for the AU to investigate Eritrea which is pretty much saying allow Ethiopia to investigate Eritrea. As everybody knows, Ethiopia has a lot of sway and dominates African politics and regional organizations of IGAD and the AU. 

Eritrea has rejected the resolution outright and is willing to work with the UN human rights council based on the UPR process and will not succumb to such pressures from countries like Ethiopia and Djibouti or anybody else that is providing them support out there. So it actually undermines the system, in the end.

These are not damming evidences, these are damning allegations that haven't been proven yet. Eritrea has been calling for the COI, Special Rapporteur, the UN and others making allegations (Amnesty International, Human rights Watch) to come with evidences for their obscene allegations against Eritrea. And yet today, they haven't been able to provide a single evidence. They talk about 500 people with no names, no faces and reject the words of 45,000 Eritreans who've written to the Commissioners, who have collected over 220,000 petitions and they refuse to listen to Eritreans in the Diaspora or anywhere else and just chose to listen to asylum seekers who are vulnerable populations who are in Ethiopia and Djibouti of all places. 

So it really questions the Commission's mandate, the Commission's desire to fit evidence into something that is not there. They are welcome to do it again if the courts or the commission is giving another year or the Rapporteur , they will still not come up with any evidence because they have never been able to substantiate these allegations against Eritrea. It's becoming a tiring process, waste of money, waste of resources and really tying up a country that's working to develop itself - self reliance. 

And it would behoove these people who are so concerned  about Eritrea's youth to call on Ethiopia to end its 14 years occupation of Eritrea. That's the bases for the prolonged National Service, nothing else! It's not slavery, they are working for their country, working for their population, rebuilding their debilitated infrastructure. There's nothing wrong with that. All of Europe and America have developed on the bones of their own people, why not Eritrea? 

So this diversion of using National Service and other issues to cover up for Ethiopia's occupation of Eritrea for 14 years has got to stop. The first thing the EU, the AU and the United Nations is to call on Ethiopia to vacate from sovereign Eritrean territories its been occupying for 14 years. And everything else will come after that. And everyone will see who is lying and who is telling the truth. 

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